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How Did Dorothea Dix Changed The Medical Field

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“Dorothea Dix was an activist, educator, and reformer” in the 19th century who changed the medical field during her lifetime drastically. Dix was “born on April 2, 1802 in Hampden, Maine”. During her early years, she lived with her brothers and parents in a small home. From time to time Dorothea went to Boston to stay with her grandparents because her family was poor. At age 12, Dorothea left home for good to go live with her grandmother in Boston due to her alcoholic parents and abusive father. She began teaching at age 14 and even found a school for girls, the Dix Mansion. It was a school for girls who didn’t have the money to go to a school and allowed them to attend for free. She even wrote textbooks and her book Conversations on Common …show more content…

His description sparked significant public response. Due to this Dorothea “decided to take up the cause of the mentally ill full-time. Two years later she composed the first of what would become several memorials to state legislatures throughout the country”. In 1843, in a Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislatures she talked about what she had seen in the prisons and “demanded immediate reforms”. She wrote, “Men of Massachusetts, I implore. I demand pity and protection for these of my suffering, outraged sex”. With the support of others “Dix’s petition had been approved and a bill was sent out that provided funds for the mentally ill at the Worcester State Hospital”. She then “expanded her campaign in the states of New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Kentucky”, and more. Dix had also went to the “home of Cyrus Butler, a wealthy businessman, to ask for to help improve the treatments of the mentally ill. Lucky Butler agreed and donated $40,000 to Dix’s cause”. That money had allowed hundreds of the city’s mentally ill to be transferred/moved and taken to a new hospital. “This allowed her to turn her attention to present a memorial to state legislature in New Jersey”. This made the New Jersey’s lawmakers approve of her proposal to make a new state hospital. That same year another hospital was built in …show more content…

Midwest and South, as well as in portions of eastern Canada. At this point, she had helped to establish six new hospitals for the mentally ill and had influenced the improvement of numerous other facilities.” She continued on doing this for the next three years. In 1848 she asked for over 12 million acres of land for the mentally ill including the blind and the deaf from Congress. Both houses of Congress, approved of this but then “vetoed by President Franklin Pierce” in 1854. “Discouraged by the setback, Dix went to Europe”. She discovered huge differences between the public and private hospitals in the countries. She recommended reforms in many of the countries, and also met with Pope Pius IX. Who had personally ordered construction for new hospitals for the mentally ill and disabled after hearing her report. After her success out of the United States, she returned back home in

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